최저임금의 적용ㆍ결정과 그 예외에 관한 소론

Ahead of the 2024 minimum wage decision, this article discusses some of the problems with current minimum wage legislation, with a particular focus on the application of the minimum wage. First, regarding the differential application of the minimum wage, many countries have a single national minimum wage, as well as separate minimum wages for each industry or region, or collective agreements. In Korea, there are some who argue for different minimum wage rates depending on the industry, occupation, region and company size. However, the current law only allows for differential application by “type of business”, which can be controversial due to the ambiguity of the meaning of “type of business” and the criteria for categorisation. In addition, differential application may lead to the stagnation of low wages for vulnerable groups and an imbalance in labour supply and demand between sectors, which may contradict the role of the minimum wage in protecting low-paid workers. Second, the application of a reduced minimum wage for apprentices takes into account the cost burden of training human resources for enterprises during the apprenticeship period, but there may still be a mismatch between the period of the reduced wage and the actual period of training, and equity issues may arise if previously skilled workers are reemployed as apprentices. Furthermore, in light of the ILO principle of equal pay for work of equal value, there is no basis for justifying the difference in labour value between apprentices and regular workers. Third, the current minimum wage law does not cover “domestic workers”. Domestic work was previously considered the private sphere of the individual and excluded from labour law, but the commercialisation and the increase in women's economic activity have led to the need to protect domestic workers, and the Domestic Workers Act of 2021 was enacted in response to this need. The ILO Domestic Workers Convention and the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission also support this. In this context, the legal status of domestic workers needs to be reconsidered and the application of the minimum wage system to domestic workers should be actively considered. Fourthly, Article 32(1) of the Constitution grants all citizens the right to work and obliges the State to ensure decent wages and implement a minimum wage system. The right to work is a guarantee of a job and working environment for workers, and it is necessary to expand the scope of the minimum wage law beyond the concept of workers to ensure the right to work more broadly. Finally, it is necessary to implement the provisions on minimum wages for contract workers. In particular, there have been a number of cases on the application of the minimum wage to workers on digital online platforms. It is no longer the case that platform workers are an exception to the rule, and we need to open up the minimum wage debate to other contract workers, such as platform workers.